How to Mop a Floor the Right Way

If you’re a homeowner, you probably have felt overwhelmed with cleaning before. Since the median size for a home is 2,224 square feet, this is completely understandable.

One chore that you might feel overwhelmed with is mopping- after all, it’s a pretty long and daunting process that requires preparation and understanding. You might be asking exactly how to mop a floor- again, a completely understandable question.

Here, we’ll give you three great tips for mopping up messes in your home.

1. Prepare For Mopping

Mopping your hardwood surfaces isn’t exactly something you might think requires preparation, but it needs it more than you know. First, you need to know not to mop more than once a week. If you do, then you might scrub down the surface too much and ruin the protective coatings that line your floor. This will ruin your surface, so avoid doing that!

You also have to clear the area, of course. Mopping’s going to be a lot harder if you’re bending like a contortionist around chairs and tables.

Once you’ve got that done, you should probably think about doing another preliminary cleaning like sweeping and vacuuming. Mops aren’t great at picking up little crumbs you might have dropped or pet hair that your furbabies might have shed, so you need to get this up before mopping.

Otherwise, you could scratch your floor by scrubbing the debris in.

2. Don’t Worry About Antibacterial Cleaners

A lot of people think that when they mop they need to use antibacterial cleaners in the water they’re using, but this might not be such a great idea after all. There isn’t actually any evidence that using antibacterial products is going to make you not become sick, but there is a reason to think that it might actually do the opposite.

There are some good types of bacteria that exist both in our bodies and in our homes. By using too many antibacterial products, we wind up killing those good bacteria that keep us healthy.

A good alternative to these products is just to use soapy water. It gets up the grime you don’t want on your floor and gives it the shiny clean look you’re going for, all without the risk.

3. Understand How To Mop A Floor

Mopping a floor seems pretty straightforward, but there are a lot of things that people forget about when they’re going to town mopping. You need your mop and bucket, obviously, but did you know that you should use a second bucket of plain water to rinse the floor after mopping? Lots of people just use the same soapy water, but that does nothing to get the soap up after cleaning.

It’s also important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t just blindly scrub and scrub and not pay attention to anything else. Make sure that you’re also wringing out the mop sometimes to get the dirty water out of it and make sure that you aren’t rubbing the grime deeper in the floor.

Also, make sure that while you’re mopping you’re rinsing as you go along. If the soap bubbles dry on the floor, you’re going to have a whole new mess!

Get Cracking!

There you have it! Now that you know how to mop a floor, you’re ready to go get moving.

If you have any other questions or you want to hire a pro to do the job even better, contact us at this page. We’re always glad to help.